


Fired Up

by allthehearteyes, caitlesshea



Series: Nothing but Fluff [6]
Category: Animal Kingdom (TV)
Genre: Family, Fluff, Love, M/M, Sweetness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-27 21:26:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16710322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allthehearteyes/pseuds/allthehearteyes, https://archiveofourown.org/users/caitlesshea/pseuds/caitlesshea
Summary: The boys have a house warming party, and the family shows their support.





	Fired Up

**Author's Note:**

> Yet another awesome piece by caitlesshea! We imagined many of the parts and pieces together, but she’s the one who wrote all the fluffy goodness!!! What a rockstar!
> 
> ~~find us on Tumblr (same names)~~

They finally get to the grocery store. Honesty, who knew that shopping for a housewarming party would be so hard? Between the liquor store, the bakery, and the menu planning, he was tired. But they still had to get all the food. Good thing this was only for their families. He laughs.

“What?”, Adrian asks him as he pushes the cart down the first aisle.

“Nothing. Was just thinking I’m glad we only invited family. I can only imagine how long this would take to do for a huge party. I don’t remember it being this hard?”

“You mean for a kegger?”, Adrian asks.

“Exactly”, Deran says back.

He hears Adrian laugh, “Guess we’re grown ups now”. Deran smiles, “Oh hey we need that”, as he points to the roasted raspberry chipotle sauce, “And grab those walnuts right there. We’ll need to head over to the refrigerated section for puff pastry too.”

Adrian grabs it off the shelf, “Maybe you should navigate. I feel like I’m going in circles, and I have no idea what we’re getting”.

“We’re just getting everything to make baked bries. One sweet and one savory for the appetizer, and then we can grab the stuff for you to make your famous lemon strawberry cheesecake,” Deran says cheekily.

Adrian laughs again, “I see what you did there. Okay D, I’ll make cheesecake”.

Deran smiles, mission accomplished. Not his fault he loves Adrian’s baking. They’re both going to have to go running tomorrow morning to work all this food off.

After what feels like forever, Adrian wanted to try _all_ the samples, they finally make it to the register. He goes to grab his wallet and he feels Adrian’s hand on his arm.

“Let me get it”, Adrian says softly. “I can..”, he starts to say when Adrian cuts him off. “Please, you do so much for us”, Adrian says to him. He can’t help it, he smiles and squeezes his hand.

“Okay Ace”, and then he has an idea, “Hey, what if we had a joint bank account?”

Adrian stops putting the food on the register and turns to look at him, “A joint account?”

“Yeah. You know, for things like this. For the house or for us”, Deran says. Now that he’s got the idea in his head, it makes more and more sense. He knows that it might take a while for Adrian to get on board. They’ve had plenty of conversations about finances, especially after he bought the house without telling Adrian while he was locked up.

“I...I don’t know D”, Adrian says. Deran keeps pulling the food out of the cart.

“It’s a big step I know”, Deran says.

“It’s not that”, Adrian says back.

“Then what?”, Deran says, but is cut off again. “I don’t want it to seem like I keep taking from you”, Adrian says to him.

“You aren’t. And that’s not what this is either. It’s for us. To use for our house”, Deran says. Maybe he should’ve explained this more. And not when they were out shopping in public.

Deran sees Adrian’s eyes soften, “Okay D, but maybe just one joint account, and we each keep our own. We put the same amount in the joint account each month”.

Huh. He never thought of that. But it seems like a fair compromise, “Okay. That works”. For now, he thinks. Their lives are intertwined which means everything he has is Adrian’s too. He smiles. One day Adrian will fully understand that. Right now this compromise will do.

“I’m still getting this though”, Adrian says as he hands the cashier his card. Deran laughs, then looks down at all the bags. _This_ _will_ _be_ _fun_ _carrying_ _it_ _all_ _inside_ , _he_ _thinks_.

~~~

They get home and only have a couple hours to put everything away and start getting ready. Adrian begins baking the cheesecake while he straightens up the house. He knows his brothers, well mostly Craig, will end up making a mess, but Jess is bringing Spencer, so he doesn’t want to leave any hazards around.

He finally has the grill fired up and is ready to start cooking, when he hears Craig inside talking to Adrian.

“Hey bro”, Craig says and hands Deran a beer he grabbed inside.

“Hey man”, Deran says.

“Brought you guys a housewarming present”, Craig says with a weird smile on his face.

“You didn’t have to do that man”, Deran says. He isn’t sure what else to say. Is that a thing people do at housewarming parties?

He sees Craig hold up a little baggie that he starts shaking in his face.

“Dude really? Get that shit out of our house”, Deran says, more than a little pissed off. Just like Craig to bring coke to his house. Especially after everything Adrian went through. Craig just laughs.

“Don’t worry dude, Adrian said the same thing and then kicked me out of the kitchen. He wasn’t mad though”, Craig says when he sees the look on Deran’s face. Deran sees Craig pocket the baggie. _Good_ , _he_ _thinks_.

“Actually I brought you some stuff from Baz’s I thought you might want. Left it in the guest room”, Craig says.

“Thanks man”, Deran says. He’s not sure he wants anything from Baz’a but he figures their stuff has to go somewhere, so it might as well be to family.

Craig nods, “Welcome. Pope helped me. He came by to get all of Lena’s things”.

“She’s coming tonight”, Deran says happily. He’s glad he’s finally going to see his niece after so long.

“Oh nice”, Craig says and sits at the table as he’s joined by Adrian.

He sees Jess come outside with Spencer in his stroller, still sleeping.

“Hey”, Jess says as she comes to hug him.

“Hey, we have drinks in the cooler”, Deran points to the cooler they placed on the deck for the party. Eventually he wants an outdoor kitchen, but they’re taking their time renovating. But hopefully not too long, the wood paneling is starting to grow on him and he’s not happy about it.

“Thanks. Brought you guys something”, Jess says as she sits down.

“Thanks Jess, you didn’t have to do that”, he hears Adrian say.

Jess just smiles. She pulls a rectangular shaped gift out of her stroller and puts it on the table. He sees both Craig and Adrian lean forward. Adrian grabs the gift and looks up at him. He nods his head, and Adrian opens the gift. He could watch Adrian open gifts everyday. The way his eyes light up and his tongue sticks out. It’s adorable.

Whatever the gift is, it has Adrian tearing up. Deran closes the lid on the grill to walk over to Adrian. He comes up behind him to put his hands on his shoulders and leans over Adrian’s head to see what the gift was. He smiles. It’s a photo of them holding Spencer. It was taken not long after Adrian got out and they were over at Jess’ for dinner. They were both sitting on her couch playing with Spencer when Jess asked to take a photo. He didn’t think anything of it then, but now, he’s glad she took the photo.

“Thank you”, he says to Jess, slightly choked up himself. He leans down to kiss her cheek and she smiles. He moves back to the grill and sees Adrian lean over to hug her. They’re whispering to each other and smiling. He smiles himself.

~~~

Just as he reaches the grill, he hears the tell tale pitter patter of little feet and soon Lena is hugging his legs. “Uncle Deran!”, Lena says enthusiastically. “Hi Lena”, Deran says back and smiles at her. Living with that foster family has been good for her. She’s much more lively and happy now. He looks up to see Pope following behind her as well. He sees that Pope has some sort of plant in his hand.

“What’s that?”, Deran asks Pope. “It’s a fern”, Pope says and walks it over to the table and puts it in the center.

“A fern?”, Deran asks Pope.

“Yeah for your place”, Pope says as he sits next to Craig. He looks back and forth between Pope and the fern, completely confused. Did they need a fern? Deran looks to Adrian for help, but Adrian is just smiling and trying to control is face so he doesn’t laugh. _Useless_.

Deran sighs, “Thanks man”, he says to Pope, who just nods his head. Deran can see Adrian’s mouth twitch. He shoots Adrian a look.

“Uncle Deran, I made you something”, Lena says, and holds up a piece of paper.

“Thank you sweetie”, he says back to her as she goes to sit by Pope. He looks at the paper and notices it’s a house on the beach with two people next to it. She also drew a rainbow over the house. It’s cute, in an 8 year old artwork kind of way.

“Uncle Craig said I should add the rainbow”, Lena says. He sees Craig’s eyes twinkling and he starts laughing. Even Pope is smiling. He shakes his head.

“Thank you. I’m going to go put it on the fridge”, Deran says as he walks inside. He turns to see Lena beaming and Pope smiling at her. He can hear everyone talking and laughing. He thinks it’s pretty great that they can all get together like this, despite Smurf, or in spite of her, as it may be. They’re just missing one.

And speaking of the devil, J walks in, carrying two bags.

“Hey man”, he says to J, “Need a hand with those?”.

“Hey. No they’re for you and Adrian actually. Sorry I’m late”, J says.

“No worries. Food’s almost ready”, Deran says, “What are they?”, he points to the two bags.

“Oh. Bowling balls”, J says, like that wasn’t the most completely random thing he’s ever said.

“Bowling balls?”, Deran questions.

“Uh...Yeah. I bought a bowling alley. Figured we could all go. Got everyone else’s in the car”, J answers him. He’s shocked. He doesn’t know what to say. How did he buy a bowling alley? Did he expect them to go bowling? Apparently. He doesn’t _hate_ the idea. But first, “You bought a bowling alley?”, Deran asks him.

“Uh huh. I wanted to tell you all together”, J says, as he tips his head outside, “Hey is that one of Adrian’s cheesecakes?”

He laughs, “Yes. But it’s for dessert. C’mon. Dinner first, then your explanation, then cheesecake”, Deran says, as he ushers J outside.

“You are _no_ fun”, J says, as they head outside.

“I think he’s plenty fun”, Adrian jokes, as they step outside.

Everyone laughs as he leans down to kiss Adrian. He smiles.

“Yeah yeah. Alright everybody. Let’s eat”, he says as he starts getting everyone’s plates ready.

“Finally”, Craig says. Everyone laughs. It might be the weirdest housewarming party ever. At least in terms of gifts, and their dysfunctional little family. But that’s just what it is. Their family.

~~~

Deran figures he should say grace, as it’s their house, so he starts it off, “May we all get what we want”. And everyone echoes,“And never what we deserve.”

“Now can we eat?”, Craig says. They laugh again.

“Yes”, Deran says smiling.

“Somebody pass me the gouda mac and cheese”, Pope says. As the food gets distributed to everyone, Deran can’t help but look around the table. He sees Adrian smile at him from the other end. He wants to mouth _I_ _love_ _you_ to Adrian but figures the first time he tells Adrian how he feels should not be whispered across a table with other people around. He smiles back at Adrian.

“This is so good”, Craig says around a mouthful of prosciutto wrapped grilled asparagus and steak. _How_ _did_ _he_ _fit_ _it_ _all_ _in_ _his_ _mouth?_

“Thanks dude”, Deran says, “Figured I’d try something new since we got the grill”. He sees Craig nod his head.

“So...When’s dessert?”, J asks. Adrian laughs, “You’ve been eyeing the desserts since you got here”.

He sees J’s eyes light up. Adrian gets up to go get the sweats.

“Alright here you go”, Adrian says as he sets the slices out.

“Yes”, J says and immediately digs in. Deran’s pretty sure he hears Craig moan and he can see Pope and Lena smiling. His man knows his way around a mixer.

~~~

Once they finally finish and everyone starts saying their goodbyes, Deran gets up to do the dishes.

“Hey let me do that”, Adrian says, “You cooked.”

“Nah, it’s okay. You made dessert”, Deran says as he leans to kiss Adrian, “Plus I like it.”

“Bye Uncle Deran!”, Lena says as she hugs him from behind. He turns to hug her back, “Bye Lena.”

She then turns to Adrian, “Bye Uncle Adrian!”, she says and hugs him. Deran can hear Adrian gasp. Then he sees Adrian lean down to kiss her on top of her head, “Bye Lena”, Adrian says.

Deran can see Pope leaning on the kitchen island, gazing softly at Lena. She has that effect on people.

“I see you listened to me about the sponges”, Pope deadpans.

Deran laughs. He sees Pope’s lip twitch. “Night man”, Deran says to Pope as he sees him being Lena outside.

“What was that about?”, Adrian asks him.

“Oh. Uh. While back I didn’t go home for a couple nights. My place was a mess. Smurf sent Pope to look for me and he had a lot to say about the state of my sink.”

“Huh. Think I know when you’re talking about”, Adrian says. He figured Adrian did, but he doesn’t particularly like to think about those times.

“Pope came by the Shop, looking for you that day.”, Adrian says. He can see Adrian wiping down the counters now. Putting things away. Deran knows Adrian’s fidgeting.

“He did?”, Deran asks. He didn’t know that Pope went to see Adrian.

“What did he say?”, Deran asks, more than a little curious now.

“Nothing really. Asked if I knew where you were”, Adrian says. Deran turns to fully look at Adrian now, dishes forgotten. He’s not sure if he wants to know what Adrian said to Pope back then. If it’s the same day Pope found Deran on the beach, then it was the day after he broke into Adrian’s old place with Chad.

“Told him you were probably holed up at some chick’s place or surfing San Onofre”, Adrian finishes when Deran doesn’t say anything. Deran can’t help it, he’s surprised. He’s not sure why Adrian would lie, to Pope of all people, on Deran’s behalf. Even back then.

Deran sees Adrian’s eyes soften, “I would never have outed you, D”, Adrian says, answering all the questions Deran had. It makes his heart flutter. What did he do to deserve Adrian?

Deran walks over to Adrian and kisses him. Deran caress’ Adrian’s face, because he just can’t help himself. He lets himself get lost in the kiss, but eventually pulls away. “Thank you”, Deran says to Adrian. He sees Adrian smile and nod.

“C’mon, don’t you want to see what Craig brought over from Baz’s?”, Adrian asks him, as Adrian drags him into their guest room.

Adrian sits on the bed and pulls the box toward him. He sees Adrian pat the spot next to him. He walks to the bed and sits down. They both open the box. He laughs, seeing some of Baz’s shirts.

“Well they wouldn’t fit Craig”, Adrian laughs.

“True”, Deran says back. He pulls out the shirts and sees some coffee mugs and some of the kitchen towels and aprons that Cath had.

He laughs, “Guess Craig does not plan on cooking a whole lot”. He sees Adrian’s eyes twinkling with laughter. There’s a few knickknacks, a pocket knife, and a pair of sunglasses. But when he gets to the bottom, he stops. He sees two picture frames. At first he’s not sure why Craig would’ve put pictures in this box. Surely any pictures of Baz should go to Lena. But he sees Adrian grab them out of the box and turn them over.

One is of Baz and him when he was younger. One of the only surf competitions that Baz ever came to. “I remember this”, Adrian says, “I think I took this picture”.

“Yeah. Craig was sick and Smurf wouldn’t take me. Baz offered to”, Deran says. He’s touched that Baz had this up in his house. It makes him miss Baz even more.

He looks at the second picture, and he can’t help the gasp that escapes because he’s so shocked. It’s the picture that they took at The Drop, right after it opened. It was of him, Craig, J, and Pope. He remembers they took it for Baz and texted it to him. He had no idea that Baz had it framed.

“That’s a nice picture”, Adrian says, as he puts his hand on the frame.

“Yeah we took it for him actually. Before he died”, Deran says. A little choked up now.

“You miss him,” Adrian asks.

“Yeah. I mean, he was Baz, but he was family.”, Deran says back. He feels Adrian grab his hand. He ends up putting the pictures on the bookshelf in the guest room.

“I get that”, Adrian says, “C’mon let’s go to bed”.

“We have to finish cleaning up”, Deran says, as Adrian leads him towards their bedroom.

“It can wait until tomorrow,” Adrian says quietly as Adrian kisses him. Adrian starts unbuttoning his shirt.

“Yeah. Tomorrow”, Deran says back, and then he can’t focus because Adrian has started unbuttoning his jeans as he’s being dragged towards the bed. He feels himself heat up, and suddenly his need to get Adrian naked takes over with a vengeance. He pulls at Adrian’s shirt, slightly satisfied when he hears a seam rip. He hears Adrian chuckle and it quickly turns to a moan when he latched onto Adrian’s neck. He finally shoves Adrian on the bed and he lands on top of him. He can’t help the shiver that takes over his body when skin touches skin. He moves his head and seals his lips to Adrian’s. They’re both panting, pressed together, moving against the other to gain any friction they can. It feels like he’s about to combust. Adrian knows him, knows how to move, to make him fall apart. He’s still shivering when they come down from their high. He feels Adrian’s hand come up to rub the back of his neck.

“Hey”, Adrian says to him softly. The soothing motion is lulling him to sleep.

“If we don’t get up now, we’ll be stuck like this”, Adrian chuckles.

“Wouldn’t mind”, Deran mumbles. And he wouldn’t. He feels Adrian shake with laughter.

“C’mon D. Up”, Adrian gently pushes him off.

“Okay okay”, Deran concedes as he goes to the bathroom to grab a towel. They both towel wash themselves and Deran can’t help the shiver. He’s suddenly freezing.

“Cold?”, Adrian notices.

“Yeah”, Deran answers through chattering teeth.

He can feel Adrian wrap him in one of his hoodies as he’s handed a pair of sweatpants. He smiles, loving that Adrian handed him a pair of his. He loves wearing Adrian’s clothes.

~~~

“Want to start a fire?”, Adrian asks.

“In the fireplace?”, Deran asks.

“No. Outside. The fire pit”, Adrian chuckles.

“Isn’t it late?”, Deran asks. Although that does sound nice.

“So? Neither of us work tomorrow. C’mon it’ll be fun”, Adrian says as he walks him back out towards the kitchen. He looks longingly at their bed and pouts. He can see Adrian smiling.

“C’mon D. When’s the last time we pulled an all nighter?”, Adrian says, with a little challenge in his voice.

“Really? What are we? 16”, Deran teases. Adrian kisses him then pushes him outside.

He goes outside to start the fire. Snagging two beers on the way. If they’re gunna stay up a little longer, they might as well have some _more_ fun.

He pulls the couch they have outside closer to the fire and grabs the pillows from the chair. He settles in and sighs at the warm feeling on his face.

He sees Adrian come back outside with a blanket and a bowl filled with food.

“What’s that?”, Deran points to the bowl, as Adrian sits next to him and puts the blanket over them both.

“S’mores”, Adrian says as she starts to put a marshmallow onto a skewer.

“S’mores! I didn’t even know we had this stuff”, Deran laughs as he grabs his own skewer and marshmallow.

“Snuck it in the cart earlier”, Adrian says as he leans his marshmallow over the fire.

Deran shakes his head, chuckling. He gets his marshmallow perfectly gooey and starts making his s’more. He takes a bite and moans. _Man_ , _this_ _brings_ _back_ _memories._

He sees Adrian give him a look.

“What? It’s delicious”, Deran says around a mouthful of chocolate and graham cracker, “Gunna take your marshmallow off the flame?”

“No. It’s gotta be burnt”, Adrian says, as he twirls the skewer and leans it farther into the fire.

“Gross”, Deran says as he starts a second marshmallow.

He hears Adrian laugh and can see him start to make his own s’more. He laughs himself as he hears Adrian moan around his first bite.

“So good”, Adrian says as he pulls the stringy marshmallow between his teeth. He can help it, he leans over to kiss Adrian, sticky marshmallow be damned.

Deran finishes his second s’more and takes a sip of his beer. He pulls Adrian to him, and they sit in silence for a minute, taking in the cold air and warmth of the fire.

“Thank you”, Deran whispers, as he kisses Adrian’s head. He can feel Adrian squeeze his leg, and then Adrian’s shifting to tuck his head under Deran’s neck and put his arm around Deran’s waist.

“Want another one?”, Adrian asks.

“Just a marshmallow”, Deran says back. They’re just so good. He can hear Adrian chuckle. Adrian shifts to get the marshmallow and put it on the fire, and he’s sad at the loss. He starts to pull Adrian back to him and he feels another beer being placed in his hand.

“Where’d you get these?”, Deran asks, laughing. He only grabbed two.

“Brought them out with the s’mores. Figured we wouldn’t want to get up again”, Adrian laughs.

“Mmm”, Deran mumbles, as he takes a sip of his beer, “Thanks.”

Then he notices Adrian still hasn’t taken his marshmallow off the flame, “Hey you’re going to burn it”.

He sees Adrian pull it off the fire and Deran goes to grab it. “Careful”, Adrian says. Deran smiles, grabs the marshmallow and immediately looks like he has a spider web on his fingers. “Damn”, he says as he tries to lick it off.

“I can help”, Adrian says as he takes one of Deran’s fingers in his mouth. Deran moans.

“Not fair”, Deran responds, breathless.

He sees Adrian smirk and grab another marshmallow out of the bag. “Want another?”, Adrian asks him. “No thanks”, Deran says, content with the beer.

“Suit yourself”, Adrian says, as he stuff the entire marshmallow into his mouth.

“Dude”, Deran laughs, “Should’ve roasted it first.”

Deran can see Adrian’s eyes twinkling as he chews, or tries to. It seems like he can’t speak.

“Gotta mouth full there?”, Deran jokes. Adrian finally swallows, “Not yet”, he teases.

Deran lets out a huff of breath, “Yeah, come here. You’re an animal”, he says as he pulls Adrian to him.

This time Adrian comes willingly, and they settle next to each other. It’s peaceful out here, just the sound of the fire crackling and the waves hitting the shore.

“I like it out here”, Adrian says to him.

“Me too”, Deran says back. It’s lulling him to sleep, the crash from the sugar high not helping.

“I could fall asleep right here,” Deran says, “It’s so nice.”

“Just close your eyes”, Adrian says, “I’ll wake you up”.

“Okay”, Deran slurs, the motions Adrian’s making on his neck pushing him into slumber.

~~~

He groans awake, more sore than he’s been in a while. He goes to stretch and realizes he’s not in their king size bed. He looks around and notices that he’s outside on their couch, with Adrian practically sprawled on top of him. _So_ _much_ _for_ _waking_ _me_ _up_ , _Ace_.

“Babe”, Deran tries to shake Adrian awake. He has no idea what time it is. And where’s his phone?

“Wake up”, Deran tries again. He hears Adrian groan, but finally those blue, blue eyes peer up at him.

“Hi”, Adrian says, voice croaking, “Oh my god. Why am I so sore?”, Adrian complains as he rolls off Deran.

“You fell asleep too, forgot to wake us up”, Deran smiles.

“Ugh. Everything hurts”, Adrian says as he stretches.

Deran laughs, “Yeah. I think we’re too old to pass out on patio furniture”.

Adrian smiles, “I think you’re right. Coffee?”, he looks hopeful.

Deran shakes his head and smiles, “Yeah I’ll make you coffee. C’mon”, he says as he goes to stand, but has to catch himself from toppling over. Damn his back hurts.

They finally make their way into the kitchen and they both groan.

“Damn, forgot we have to clean up still. Remind me again why I let you talk me into not doing that?”.

He sees Adrian shrug his shoulders, “I believe I got naked”, he smirks.

“Right”, Deran smiles and goes to kiss Adrian, “I’ll make coffee, you start on the dishes”.

“Okay D”, Adrian says, “Man, feels weird”.

“What does?”, Deran asks as he starts the coffee.

“This. Being adults I think”, Adrian says. Deran gets what he’s trying to say. Between hosting a party that everyone was able to drive home from, to having a patio of their own to pass out on, and a place to wake up in that’s theirs, it’s a bit different from what they’re used to.

“It’s good though”, Deran says, because it is. This life with Adrian.

“It is”, Adrian says back. Deran goes over to kiss him again.

Deran finishes the coffee and hands Adrian a cup, just as Adrian places the last dish on the drying rack.

He hears Adrian moan, “Thank you”, Adrian says back. Deran chuckles just as his stomach grumbles.

“Hungry?”, Deran asks as he heads to the fridge and grabs the jelly.

“Yes”, Adrian says as he grabs the bread and peanut butter from the pantry.

Deran hands him a knife, while he grabs plates. They each begin their sides of the bread, Adrian with the peanut butter and Deran with the jelly. They work seamlessly. Because some things never change.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for taking the time to read.


End file.
